PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



659 



exist, and be at once applied, and time be allowed 

 the President to select and appoint a successor as is 

 permitted him in case of a vacancy caused by death 

 or the termination of an official term. The necessity, 

 therefore, for an ad interim appointment is just as 

 great, and, indeed, may be greater, in cases of removal 

 than in any others. Before it be held, therefore, that 

 the power given by the act of 1795, in cases of re- 

 moval, is abrogated by succeeding legislation, an ex- 

 press repeal ought to appear. So wholesome a power 

 should certainly not be taken away by loose implica- 

 tion. 



It may be, however, that in this, as in other cases 

 of implied repeal, doubts may arise. It is confessed- 

 ly one of the most subtle and debatable questions 

 which arise in the construction of statutes. If, upon 

 such a question, I have fallen into an erroneous con- 

 struction, I submit whether it should be characterized 

 as a violation of official duty and of law. 



I have deemed it proper, in vindication of the 

 course which I have considered it my duty to take, 

 to place before the Senate the reasons upon which I " 

 have based my action. Although I have been ad- 

 vised by every member of my Caoinet that the entire 

 Tenure-of-Oftiee Act is unconstitutional, and therefore 

 voidj and although I have expressly concurred in that 

 opinion in the veto message which I had the honor 

 to submit to Congress when I returned the bill for 

 reconsideration, I nave refrained from making a re- 

 moval of any officer contrary to the provisions of the 

 law, and have only exercised that power in the case 

 of Mr. Stanton, which^ in my judgment, did not 

 come within its provisions. I have endeavored to 

 proceed with the greatest circumspection, and have 

 acted only in an extreme and exceptional case, care- 

 fully following the course which I have marked out 

 for myself, as a general rule, faithfully to execute all 

 laws, though passed over my objections on the score 

 of constitutionality. In the present instance I have 

 appealed, or sought to appeal, to that final arbiter 

 fixed by the Constitution for the determination of all 

 such questions. To this course I have been impelled 

 by the solemn obligations which rest upon me to sus- 

 tain inviolate the powers of the high office committed 

 to my hands. Whatever may be the consequences 

 merely personal to myself, I could not allow them to 

 prevail against a public duty so clear to my own mind, 

 and so imperative. If what was possible had been 

 certain ; 'if 1 had been fully advised, when I removed 

 Mr. Stanton, that in thus defending the trust com- 

 mitted to my hands my .own removal was sure to fol- 

 low, I could not have hesitated, actuated by public 

 considerations of the highest character. I earnestly 

 protest against the resolution of the Senate which 

 charges me, in what I have done-with a violation of 

 the Constitution and laws of the United States. 



ANDEEW JOHNSON. 



WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1868. 



Message of President JOHNSON to the Senate, 

 suggesting changes in the Constitution. 



Experience has fully demonstrated the wisdom of 

 the framers of the Federal Constitution. Under all 

 circumstances the result of their labors was as near 

 an approximation to perfection as was compatible 

 with the fallibility of man. Such being the estima- 

 tion in which the Constitution is and has ever been 

 held by pur countrymen, it is not surprising that any 

 proposition for its alteration or amendment should 

 be received with reluctance and distrust. While this 

 sentiment deserves commendation and encourage- 

 ment as a useful preventive of unnecessary attempt 

 to change its provisions, it must be conceded that 

 time has developed imperfections and omissions in 

 the Constitution, the reiormation of which has been 

 demanded by the best interests of the country. Some 

 of these have been remedied in the manner provided 

 in the Constitution itself. There are others which, 



although heretofore brought to the attention of the 

 people, have never been so presented as to enable 

 the popular judgment to determine whether they 

 should be corrected by means of additional amend- 

 ments. My object in this communication is to sug- 

 gest certain detects in the Constitution which seem 

 to me to require correction, and to recommend that 

 the judgment of the people be taken on the amend- 

 ments proposed. 



The first of the defects to which I desire to direct 

 attention is in that clause of the Constitution which 

 provides for the election of President and Vice-Presi- 

 dent through the intervention of electors, and not by 

 an immediate vote of the people. 



The importance of so amending this clause as to se- 

 cure to the people the election of President and Vice- 

 President, by their direct votes, was urged with great 

 earnestness and ability by President Jackson in his 

 first annual message, and the recommendation was 

 repeated in five of his subsequent communications to 

 Congress, extending through the eight years of his 

 administration. In his message of 18~29, he said : 



To the people belongs the right of electing their Chief 

 Magistrate; it was never designed that their choice 

 should in any case be defeated, either by the intervention 

 of electoral colleges, or by the agency confided, under 

 certain contingencies, to the House of Representatives. 



He then proceeded to state the objections to an 

 election of President by the House of Eepresentatives, 

 the most important of which was, that the choice of a 

 clear majority of the people might be easily defeated. 

 He then closed the argument with the following rec- 

 ommendation : 



I would therefore recommend such an amendment of 

 the Constitution as may remove all intermediate agency 

 in the election of President and Vice-President. The 

 mode may be so regulated as to preserve to each State its 

 present relative weight in the election; and a failure in 

 the first attempt may be provided for by confining the 

 second to a choice between the two highest candidates. 

 In connection with such an amendment it would seem 

 advisable to limit the service of the Chief Magistrate to a 

 single term of four or six years. If, however, it should 

 not be adopted, it is worthy of consideration whether a 

 provision, disqualifying for office the Representatives iu 

 Congress on whom sucn. an election may have devolved, 

 would not be proper. 



Although this recommendation was repeated with 

 undiminished earnestness in several of his succeeding 

 messages, yet the proposed amendment was never 

 adopted and submitted to the people by Congress. 

 The danger of a defeat of the people's choice in an 

 election by the House of Eepresentatives remains un- 

 provided for in the Constitution, and would be 

 greatly increased if the House of Eepresentatives 

 should assume the power arbitrarily to reject the votes 

 of a State which might not be cast in conformity with 

 the wishes of the majority hi that body. 



But if President Jackson failed to secure the amend- 

 ment to the Constitution which he urged so persist- 

 ently, his arguments contributed largely to the for- 

 mation of party organizations, which nave effectually 

 avoided the contingency of an election by the House 

 of Eepresentatives. These organizations, first by a 

 resort to the caucus system of nominating candidates, 

 and afterward to State and national conventions, have 

 been successful in so limiting the number of candi- 

 dates as to escape the danger of an election by the 

 House of Eepresentatives. 



It is clear, however, that, in thus limiting the num- 

 ber of candidates, the true object and spirit of the 

 Constitution have been evaded and defeated. It is 

 an essential feature in our republican system of gov- 

 ernment that every citizen, possessing the constitu- 

 tional qualifications, has a rignt to become a candidate 

 for the office of President or Vice-President, and 

 that every qualified elector has a right to cast his 

 vote for any citizen whom he may regard as worthy 

 of these offices. But, under the party organizations 

 which have prevailed for years, these asserted rights 

 of the people have been as effectually cut off and de- 



